For our friends and family, near and far, here's a look at where we are. Life gets in the way of living, goes too fast & I keep forgetting. Did I send that picture out? Did I share that famous pout? So visit often and you'll see-what's new with the Homer Family. **NOTE-anytime you see bright green text, run the mouse over it, most of the time I use that to designate a link to another page...

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Be still my soul. I love the beach. I love being at the beach with my family and my "beach" family. I love July. I love Summer.

This year we had another wonderful vacation to Beach Club I. For the first time Rob and I were owners as well and that took some of the stress off of having 8 people in one unit for 4 weeks. You know that saying about fish and relatives...? Well, we had plenty of fish this year and thanks to a second unit the relative part didn't come into play. ;)

One of our first stops is to see Rob's Aunt and Uncle and his 98 year old Grandma. This is a highlight of our trip and mom usually comes along to see everyone. This year Rob's folks were down at the same time so we had a mini family reunion the first week of our vacation. We did make our way back down before the end of July.Ryan, Kevin, Jared and Great GrammyKevy Bu and Uncle RickyMy beach bunnyThe rotten little Monkey urchins ;)Lots of shells this year due to the beach expansion project.My attempt at artsyKevin saving the crittersAnother attemptRob and the love of his life~~heheheThe Times Square clock (more awesome artfulness)My Guy :DsMy favorite Artsy shot of the SummerTime to leave, one of our last nights on the beach for 2011.

We had such a blast (even thought the first 2 weeks were pretty rainy) at the flea market, shopping, nightly beach walks and just having summer fun. We got to see my girlfriend Eva oodles and she got to stay with us some since we have the 2nd unit-not to mention all the shopping trips to Island Sol. A trip to Marco was not to happen this year, but maybe next...I don't think I have ever been there and I would love to see Eva's newest store there. We had a few chances to see my cousin Danny and his beautiful family. We also had one of the best years fishing that I can ever remember. Remind me, I need to get the pictures from Rick and Dad so I can do a separate post on all of our fishing adventures. :)

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

I take SO many pictures with my iPhone (Buddy). I don't always have my big camera with me but I want to catch life in the action. I may not get a chance to blog things for a while but when I do I at least have some sort of photo to go along with the narrative. Please excuse the quality, Buddy doesn't do well in certain lighting conditions. After a year and a half I just figured out how to get all my pictures off the phone and into a file without having to email them one by one, hence all the collage posts from May, June and July. At least you know what we have been up to, even with all the crazy random pictures thrown together. :) Also excuse the fact that most of these are on FB, I wanted to add more commentary. Enjoy our month at the beach. More pics to follow from the Nikon...
Kevin during low tide, critter hunting. He spent the evening "saving" the lightning whelks on the sandbars. Did you know that the Lightning Whelk is the only left handed shell?
The HomerHouse :)
Mister and Sister :D
Mom and Dad
My dad tried like crazy to get the kids to do this shot last year. This year they did it with out complaint but I didn't have the camera!
I love, love, love this picture. It sums up my daughter in totality, ya know, that "a pictures worth a 1,000 words" kind of thing. She is a water baby!
Eva's first trip shark fishing. We had a great day, thanks Rick! :)
Pinkie catching bait
I love this one, she is trying to save all the star fish. My kids get so irked when people (kids especially) mistreat and man handle the sea creatures.
Summer reading at it's best. Who wouldn't enjoy sitting on the porch, with a breeze and a great book? ahhhh......decadence!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Each year the kids have the opportunity to read for free Six Flags tickets. Boy, do they know the way to Jared's heart! We let the kiddos pick a friend to take, especially since they have the same option to get free tickets too. It's a win-win. This year we had a sleep over afterward, it was chaos but so much fun to welcome summer.
Ryan & Gabby
1st stop? The BRAND NEW Dare Devil Dive, Jared has been waiting MONTHS for this to open, he was over the moon excited. Everyone went on except for Ryan, Evan and Mom...that's ok-someone needs to watch the stuff ;)
Lived up to expectations, which for him are pretty high :)
Thunder River: Rob, Anthony, Jared and Jordan
Thunder river part two: hehehe, guess who got wet? Kevin, Evan, Gabby & Ryan
No worries Kevin, we were all going to get soaked in a bit. A HUGE summer storm came out of nowhere so we ended up calling the day short by about an hour. There was so much hail, wind and rain I thought we would float away. We stopped at Waffle House for dinner and then back to the HomerHouse for sleeps, great visit-next year will be here soon I am sure.

Ryan's class project, a pumpkin seed in a cup. She begged us to plant it! Wanna takes bets on if we will have a pumpkin for Halloween?
Got a chance to sneak up to the lake for some summer fun!
Jared got to go to Aerospace Camp at Southern Poly (Thanks Grammy & Pop Pop). He had a BLAST and wants to go again. If you look close you can see the golden eagle pin he won. Only a few were handed out all week. He won the boomerang contest :)
More swim team for Chargers
Ryan on the Blocks, she and Jared won MVS this year for their age groups.
Happy Father's Day! Jared got straight A's last year so you got a flier that entitled you to get Braves tickets for a great price. We took them up on their offer since that seems to be the new Father's Day tradition.
Dad and Kev with Ryan peeking out :)
Pinkie and Duff, first time swimming at GT, beautiful pool!!
Menchies, our new addiction, so scrumptious...mmmmm.....FroYo.....
Hey look at that! Our pumpkin got bigger. We had three flowers on it when we left for the beach, but no busy bees were around to pollinate. :( No pumpkin for us this year. I think she and daddy guy are going to plant an actual garden next summer, I am sure we will have tomatoes too :)